news on intel cpu price cuts -q6600 $266 !!!!

[bga]

Every test (and there is quite a few) out there shows that a faster clocked dual core is better than a slower quad for gaming.

This is to be expected since the idea of multi-core is still quite new. There are only a few games today that make use of the new ability.

However: A year from now? Multi-core will be the norm and popular old games as well as the new will be programmed to make use of it.

I think it will take more than a year for true multi-threaded games to be common. Today not even one truely multi-threaded game is in the market, and only one game in beta (Alan Wake) has been shown to be multi-threaded. There is a whole lot of issues which have to be considered when making a game truely multi-threaded (load balanced n-threads), so it is far from a trivial task to do. Look at least 2 years before you can find a hand full of topgames using mulitiple cores in any meaningful way, and 5 years before it will be common.
I would say that if you are going to buy a gaming PC this year, then get a fast dual core, but if you are more a general power user then get a quad.

 

[xcetera]

What would be the equivalent AMD chip performance and price?

 

[alpha_channel]

Sorry, if the rumours are true, you won't be able to. The new, low, low prices are only for the line with a 1333MHz FSB, which requires a new motherboard. The article says, that no price cut is planned for the existing line with the 1066MHz FSB.[/quote]

Typical :roll:

 

[HotFoot]

Some motherboards have launched with official support for the 1333 FSB. The only issue is wheter or not the VRM will be changed, which I don't see happening until at least the 45nm if not Nehalem.

 

[speedemon]

Yeah i am getting myself a q6600 , about time something good happened out of this crap created by AMD.

The only time i got f***** over was when i switched to AMD.

I like Amd but if they arent willing to shape up its better to let them burn :twisted:

to bad you cant vote negative

 

[PotGoblin]

here are the linkys to the latest price charts from HKEPC

Core 2 Duo's

http://www.hkepc.com/bbs/itnews.php?tid=755282&starttime=0&endtime=0

Quad Core

http://www.hkepc.com/bbs/news.php?tid=754873&starttime=0&endtime=0

 

[adapa]

I was all set to order the parts for a build then you have to post this...jeez have you no heart???

Oh my, if I wait till Q3 I could get the Q6600 for $266....

 

[Oldguy]

Oldguy confused. New releases will be 1333 fsb. Many high end socket 775 mb (notably 6xx chipsets) show support 1066/1333 fsb. Does this mean a bios flash will allow the use of the new cpu? Related question is whether or not the DDR3 standards will have significant impact on performance or will high en oc DDR2 suffice in current mb configurations..

Also saw some details on new ICH9 chipsets to add to cunfusion vs current chipsets. Oh well, at least last week's thread on boring times for enthusiasts no longer applies.

 

[tubaloth]

Sorry for my lack of Knowledge, but when is Q3? I guess for some reason I thought Q1 actually ended with the end of the year? But I could be wrong.

 

[jaguarskx]

makes me think their 45nm chips are going to be huge, and they want to empty the shelves before they release that, and not get stuck like they did with P4's sitting on a shelf somewhere, wasting away...

that or they are just all out trying to kill AMD so they can go back to selling sub par chips for massively inflated prices...

I think it is both. But the situation will be slightly different regarding stock. The C2D clearly has a performance advantage over the P4s, so Intel needed to drop the prices to clear out as much stock as possible.

Intial 45nm C2Ds will not really improve performance by much, but enthusiasts will prefer them over the 65nm versions because of the overclocking potential. Having 1333Mhz FSB isn't bad either.

Intel's intent on sqwashing AMD was apparent when they first released the C2D last year. They could have easily charged more money for the CPUs because at stock speed they performed better than their Athlon counterparts.

Selling a C2Q for $266 is simply a continuation of the same strategy. While it's nice buy a powerful CPU for a cheap price, it sure ain't gonna do wonders for Intel's stock prices. As a consumer I'm happy, but as an Intel stockholder I am not (I've been an Intel stockholder since my Athlon XP days).

Intel should back off on it's price war with AMD. The absolute worst possible thing to happen would be for AMD to be driven out of business. If that would to ever happen then every consumer would lose.

 

[jaguarskx]

Sorry for my lack of Knowledge, but when is Q3? I guess for some reason I thought Q1 actually ended with the end of the year? But I could be wrong.

Calander Year:

Q1 = Jan - Mar
Q2 = Apr - Jun
Q3 = Jul - Sep
Q4 = Oct - Dec

A company's fiscal year can be different. For example, Q1 could be Aug to Oct. When companies state they are going to release a product in a particular quarter, they usually mean calander year, not fiscal year because the general public does not know when each and every company in world begins their fiscal year.

 

[cal7]

So they say.Latest bios from Gigabyte and Asus - and all other 965 mobos as well i guess - add support for 1333 CPUs.That of course remains to be seen when we have those CPUs.I would never trust Intel on such future changes though.As for DDR3 , if anyone has numbers i would like to see them too , or else i would say it looks like DDR to DDR2 situation.Intel used DDR2 , AMD didnt and it wasnt that much of a problem at least for some time.

 

[cal7]

I think it is both. But the situation will be slightly different regarding stock. The C2D clearly has a performance advantage over the P4s, so Intel needed to drop the prices to clear out as much stock as possible.

I think you are right about that and i think its one of the reasons they didint have very cheap C2D from start.People can still buy a CPU based on MHz or the Intel brand ,no matter how old this thing is.

 

[Oatmealsoup]

that or they are just all out trying to kill AMD so they can go back to selling sub par chips for massively inflated prices...

That would be anyone's business model in their position, I'd expect. Although 'kill off' is a bit much with current anti-trust laws. I think 'relegate to a permanent second class competitor with perpetual 10% market share' would be more accurate.

 

[Lacostiade]

I'm worried about AMD. I mean how can AMD use 65 nm and afford to sell a quad core $266. AMD is in big trouble. Lately, after all the delays, I've started switching to the Intel (CPU) and nvidia (GPU) side, and I'm sure many AMD fans are .

 

[Lionhardt]

its awesome.

 

[spaztic7]

Ok, I am also a little confused about something. There has been studies that show that right now the fsb is not a bottleneck. On AMD stuff they were able to slow the fsb down to 400 mhz and get the same fps that they did at the native 2000 mhz on the processor. Will it really make a difference if you move up to the 1333 mhz from the 1066? Also, I understand that the new Intel processors will be 1333 mhz fsb, but are they also 45 nanometer or are they still 65 nanometer? One last thing, if the charts are true It wouldn't matter at all if you get a motherboard that has 1333 mhz fsb because the q6600 is a 1066 mhz fsb.

So I guess what I am really asking is other for the clarification is, should I go with a E6600 in April or should I get a hold me over processor until I can get my hands on a the $266 Q6600?



These are the charts.
Dual Core
http://www.hkepc.com/bbs/attachment.php?aid=502695&noupdate=yes
Quad Core
http://www.hkepc.com/bbs/attachment.php?aid=502410&noupdate=yes


Also tell me if this is a good system for under $2500 on newegg.

~My future system~
- GIGABYTE GZ-FA1CA-ASS Silver 1.0 mm Aluminum body ATX Full Tower
- E6600 or Q6600?????
- G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL4D-2GBPK (x2 = 4gb)
- R600 (X2900XTX or is it the X2800XTX??)
- ASUS P5W DH DELUXE/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel 975X ATX Intel Motherboard
- Thermaltake W0116RU Complies with ATX 12V 2.2 & EPS 12V version 750W
- HITACHI Deskstar T7K500 HDT725032VLA360 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
- SAMSUNG 206BW Black 20" 2 ms (GTG) DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor
- LITE-ON Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model LH-16D1P-185
- ASUS 16X DVD±R DVD Burner with 12X DVD-RAM Write, LightScribe Technology, Include Free CD Case Black E-IDE/ATAPI Model DRW-1612-CAB
- Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card
- Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate DVD
- ZALMAN 9700 LED 110mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler

 

[bliq]

Would quad core be the choice for a budget server for the home?

Quad core and budget server are an oxymoron. What are you doing at home that requires any real horsepower from a server at all???

I'd probably suggest a P3 or A-XP for a home server as they're fast enough, and don't really require much power, a necessity since servers tend to be on all the time. My home server uses a 100W power supply and a P3-733. Does apache, ftp, mail, and file services just fine.

 

[RJ]

Ok, I am also a little confused about something. There has been studies that show that right now the fsb is not a bottleneck. On AMD stuff they were able to slow the fsb down to 400 mhz and get the same fps that they did at the native 2000 mhz on the processor. Will it really make a difference if you move up to the 1333 mhz from the 1066? Also, I understand that the new Intel processors will be 1333 mhz fsb, but are they also 45 nanometer or are they still 65 nanometer? One last thing, if the charts are true It wouldn't matter at all if you get a motherboard that has 1333 mhz fsb because the q6600 is a 1066 mhz fsb.

So I guess what I am really asking is other for the clarification is, should I go with a E6600 in April or should I get a hold me over processor until I can get my hands on a the $266 Q6600?



These are the charts.
Dual Core
http://www.hkepc.com/bbs/attachment.php?aid=502695&noupdate=yes
Quad Core
http://www.hkepc.com/bbs/attachment.php?aid=502410&noupdate=yes


Also tell me if this is a good system for under $2500 on newegg.

~My future system~
- GIGABYTE GZ-FA1CA-ASS Silver 1.0 mm Aluminum body ATX Full Tower
- E6600 or Q6600?????
- G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL4D-2GBPK (x2 = 4gb)
- R600 (X2900XTX or is it the X2800XTX??)
- ASUS P5W DH DELUXE/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel 975X ATX Intel Motherboard
- Thermaltake W0116RU Complies with ATX 12V 2.2 & EPS 12V version 750W
- HITACHI Deskstar T7K500 HDT725032VLA360 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
- SAMSUNG 206BW Black 20" 2 ms (GTG) DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor
- LITE-ON Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model LH-16D1P-185
- ASUS 16X DVD±R DVD Burner with 12X DVD-RAM Write, LightScribe Technology, Include Free CD Case Black E-IDE/ATAPI Model DRW-1612-CAB
- Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card
- Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate DVD
- ZALMAN 9700 LED 110mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler

I bought a Celeron D 360 to "hold me over" until the intel prices drop on the C2D, for my second comp. I figured I'd buy a cheap mATX mobo and build a setup to sell the Celeron later on. Now....it looks like I might be waiting another 3 months.......damn.

BTW, the Celeron is 3.46 ghz stock. I've got it OC'ed to 4.63 ghz with no voltage changes and it scores in SiSandra are equivalent to an FX-57 8)

 

[bga]

Would quad core be the choice for a budget server for the home?

Quad core and budget server are an oxymoron. What are you doing at home that requires any real horsepower from a server at all???

Today Quad core and budget are in contradiction, but if the rumours are true then it won't be so by Q307. And yes, certainly a home server can need a powerful CPU - if it does videoencoding, as part of a DVR network, where the server captures, encodes and stores video for later viewing.

 

[DarkTide]

Every test (and there is quite a few) out there shows that a faster clocked dual core is better than a slower quad for gaming.

This is to be expected since the idea of multi-core is still quite new. There are only a few games today that make use of the new ability.

However: A year from now? Multi-core will be the norm and popular old games as well as the new will be programmed to make use of it.

I think it will take more than a year for true multi-threaded games to be common. Today not even one truely multi-threaded game is in the market, and only one game in beta (Alan Wake) has been shown to be multi-threaded. There is a whole lot of issues which have to be considered when making a game truely multi-threaded (load balanced n-threads), so it is far from a trivial task to do. Look at least 2 years before you can find a hand full of topgames using mulitiple cores in any meaningful way, and 5 years before it will be common.
I would say that if you are going to buy a gaming PC this year, then get a fast dual core, but if you are more a general power user then get a quad.

I know Supreme Commander is capable of using a quad core. What's the difference between that and a 'truely multi-threaded game'?

 

[bga]

What would be the equivalent AMD chip performance and price?

Today, and probably for the next 6 months AMD does not have anything performing like the Q6600 at any price. The first AMD quad core is the K10/Barcelona design, which is scheduled for Q3, but as a server chip at first - so it's not like Intel needs to lower the price of the Q6600 to compete in the desktop market. It's more the Xeon 53xx's which finally are going to have some competition in Q3.

 

[bga]

I know Supreme Commander is capable of using a quad core. What's the difference between that and a 'truely multi-threaded game'?

I don't know "Supreme Commander". Do you have any benchmarks showing that it benefits from more cores?

The difference between a non multi threaded program, a simple multi threaded program and a truely multi threaded program is the way it devides its workload. A non multi threaded program is just that: Nothing happens concurrently - when the program is working on something, everything else inside the program is suspended.
A simple multi threaded program might open new threads to actions which is detached from the main execution. Such as printing, accepting user input, playing background music, saving a backup copy in the background.
But that does not adequately distribute the load between the different threads, and as such do not help the operating system in distributing the load between different CPU cores.
A truely multi-threaded program takes the main execution thread and divides the job up in n-threads which can be distributed between different CPU cores, each being distributed an equal part of the application (game) execution work. That is hard to do and conceptually very different coding than a single execution thread. Additionally you need some inter thread communication (which must not become another bottleneck) to exchange data and avoid deadlock and concurrent data modification problems.

 

[bga]

Ok, I am also a little confused about something. There has been studies that show that right now the fsb is not a bottleneck. Will it really make a difference if you move up to the 1333 mhz from the 1066?

I guess not. In the original link it also states that upping the FSB won't give better performance (but it sure doesn't hurt). So maybe they are going to lower the price to get people over on the new platform (Bearlake).

Also, I understand that the new Intel processors will be 1333 mhz fsb, but are they also 45 nanometer or are they still 65 nanometer?

Anything new mentioned (the 6x50 series) will be 65nm. Penryn (45nm) is first comming in Q407, and any new architecture (Nehalem) is 2008.

One last thing, if the charts are true It wouldn't matter at all if you get a motherboard that has 1333 mhz fsb because the q6600 is a 1066 mhz fsb.

Yes, for the Q6600 that is true. The article mentions that it is only the new chips (having 1333MHz FSB) which are having their price reduced, but at least the Q6600 is mentioned as also having it's price lowered. It's a bit unclear, which is another reason for why I don't really trust the prices mentioned for Q3.

So I guess what I am really asking is other for the clarification is, should I go with a E6600 in April or should I get a hold me over processor until I can get my hands on a the $266 Q6600?

Wait for the April 22 price drop (which is official) and get the Q6600 for $530 - a good deal anyway. A E6600(now)+$266(Q3) is going to be more expensive than $530(April 22), and you will have the joy of 4 cores earlier.

 

[bullaRh]

nah it will not valve already working on it

ive seen the alan wake demo with a quad core and it was really cool how it worked. anyway i will say a year and u will see alot of games that support it, wait and see.